


a woman died today

by songfic_suites



Series: Apartment Nocturnes [1]
Category: Scandal (TV)
Genre: Drabble, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-30
Updated: 2013-10-30
Packaged: 2017-12-30 22:10:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1023965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/songfic_suites/pseuds/songfic_suites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Olivia’s not with Jake and she’s not with Fitz either, but don’t forget, a woman died today.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a woman died today

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing in relation to the Scandal series, it's characters, or its storylines.
> 
> Post 3x03 Mrs. Smith Goes To Washington

And Olivia turns off her phone.

Whether it was her father or Fitz or her people or someone else out there who needed her, Olivia gently pulls the cord out of the phone base. Her movements precise, as she remembers all the dirt on her clothes was probably getting on her couch.

“You want to get out of those clothes?” Jake asks.

_“Take off your clothes.”_

And Olivia wants to.

“Olivia?”

_“Take off your clothes.”_

How long ago was it that he sat on her couch, smug, telling her _“You’re gonna watch me earn you.”_

“You want me to shut up—“

“No,” Olivia says, turning to him slightly, trying to meet Jake’s eyes and not all the scars and wounds striped across his face.

 _A woman died today_ , she thinks.

“No. I just,” she looks down at her hands, at the dirt crusting underneath her normally pristine manicure. “I just need to sit here and not talk. I don’t mind if you talk, I just can’t do all the talking,” she swallows, her throat dry, “right now.”

Jake stands. “I can talk while you shower.” He holds out his hand.

_“Join me?”_

Olivia stares at his surprisingly clean palm knowing the scars on the other side. There isn’t an inch of him that isn’t marred in some way because of her.

 _A woman died today_.

“Not together—? “ Olivia asks.

“Not together.”

 

~*~*~*~*~*~

 

He sits on the toilet after Olivia tells him it’s safe to come in. She doesn’t know how long she bows her head under the thundering spray, but Jake doesn’t mention it, handing her a towel and averting his eyes when she shuts the water off. He steps out of the bathroom and shuts the door as she changes into some pajamas he left her. And even through the thick, steamy air and low ringing in her ears, Jake talks incessantly.

Olivia learns he has a fear of heights after falling out of a tree as a child. He tells her about the high school sweetheart he dated through college who realized quickly she did not want to be a Navy. He talks about throwing up in the jet simulator and forcing himself back in until his fears receded. He skirts around Fitz at first, but then she learns how they met in boot camp, how Jake hated Fitz for being an over-privileged senator’s brat and how petty he was until Fitz went back for him when he fell off a mountain.

Then he talks about meeting her.

He talks about her father in terms of “my CO,” and in flat terms describes his mission.

“I was ordered to renew my friendship with the president, find who he was sleeping with and out their relationship to neutralize her influence,” Jake says as calmly as if he were delivering a brief.

At the foot of her bed, Olivia stops finger combing conditioner through her hair, staring at the carpet in front of her. She feels Jake’s eyes on her but says nothing, holding the conditioner bottle trying to process what he’s telling her.

“And then this woman stormed into my office demanding classified information,” Jake says, moving from the bathroom doorway and crouching down slowly to sit at her feet. “Shouting, actually,” he laughs, “and so sure I was gonna _give_ her sensitive government documents.” And he had been talking looking at her feet but looks up at her, his eyes hesitant.

“Give me a minute?” Olivia asks.

_"One minute?"_

“An actual minute or code for ‘take a walk around the block?’”

_“Hi.”_

“An actual minute,” she says.

And she doesn’t watch him leave. She stares at the floor in front of her foot, dangling a conditioner bottle between her fingertips, and away from Jake’s presence her mind begins to racing as fears clamor up her throat.

Jake is here. Her father knows Jake is here. He could have sent him. He could twist him. They could be used against each other. She can’t. She can’t.

_A woman died today._

 

~*~*~*~*~*~

 

She lets Jake have the bed. She doesn’t know why.

Jake wouldn’t admit it but his eyes were red and tired in the corners and any formalities felt flimsy and hollow.

So Jake is in her bed. And he pulls her into it, next to him. And before she’s even settled, Jake’s arm slackens around her shoulders and Olivia knows she could roll away and he wouldn’t notice. She stares at his face. Even in the dark, the edges of his wounds are an angry red and probably need to be looked at. And his chest rose and fell in the soft glow of the streetlight.

_A woman died today._

And Olivia turns onto her back, staring at her ceiling, the weight next to her both odd and familiar with the soundtrack of Jake’s soft breath.

_“Good morning beautiful.”_

And Jake turns, curling into her body, settling his forehead against her cheek, and sliding his hand under her shirt and over her stomach. Olivia holds her breath when he exhales hard against her neck.

But he doesn’t say anything. He lays there, breathing, his fingertips hot against her skin.

And her father knows he’s there. Her father sent him there, and as she turns into Jake whose hands slide to cup her lower back, Olivia bites her lip, remembering the rumble of _his_ voice and the unrelenting wood under her fists that she almost died in front of.

_A woman died today._

_“Stand down.”_

And Olivia shuts her eyes and blocks every sound but Jake’s breathing and the unrelenting ringing in her ears.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thinking of doing a series of interludes after the credits end on the show. So keep your eyes peeled for more.


End file.
